The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court judge adjourned proceedings on the government's petition to wind up Baha Mar to August 19-20 on Friday morning after revelations that Baha Mar's contractor has expressed reservations about the personnel appointed to serve as provisional liquidators for Baha Mar.

(Baha Mar responds here)

In proceedings before Justice Ian Winder, it was revealed that China Construction America (CCA), in a letter sent to the Office of the Attorney General from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Bahamas, contested the appointment of three PwC professionals to serve as Baha Mar's provisional liquidators. The letter was reportedly sent between midnight and 1am on Thursday.

The PwC Advisory (Bahamas) liquidators, who have been lined up to take over at Baha Mar in a 'worst case scenario', are managing partner, Prince Rahming; Gowon Bowe (also the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation's chairman); and Garth Calow. 

Yesterday however, it was revealed by counsel that the government has already approached three professionals from Ernst and Young (Bahamas) - Michele Thompson, Roy Bailey and Karen Hutchinson - as potential replacements for the PwC professionals. 

Peter Knox, QC, representing the government, the applicants in the matter, submitted to Justice Winder that it would be "inappropriate" to continue proceedings in light of CCA's announcement. He requested an adjourned date of August 10, submitting that it should be a date in "the very near future" due to the "gravity" of the situation. 

He added that the government was still optimistic that talks between the relevant parties regarding the Baha Mar crisis would eventually result in a mutual agreement.

Justice Winder ultimately set a date for the hearing of August 19-20. 

However, Maurice Glinton, QC, Baha Mar's attorney, expressed his disappointment with the announcement by CCA, which he said he was made aware of around 1am on Thursday. 

He questioned the circumstances surrounding CCA's stance on the liquidators and its subsequent announcement, and submitted that any liquidators involved in the matter are subjected to the respondents being a part of the (vetting) process to make the situation "tidier" by the time it reaches court.

Afterwards, speaking to reporters, he added: "This is all part of what it is we have to meet and have had to meet from the very beginning, and in due course we intend to prove to the court that the petitions or the petition which is being filed by the so-called petitioners, is fundamentally flawed, fatally flawed, can't go anywhere, and is all a charade.

"It's abusive, it's oppressive, and when we get back into court we will endeavour to convince the judge as well that this is not a situation where provisional liquidators ought to have been appointed or sought to be appointed by the so-called government, if that in fact is the true petitioner. 

"The indication, for example, in a letter that we got is that the parties are talking and the government is hopeful of there being a quick resolution to these matters real soon and hopefully that real soon will be before the date which is fixed for us to be back here. If that happens, the parties are speaking, not necessarily loving each other but again working with each other to get this put right for the benefit of the Bahamian people, all of the employees, then it will all be worth it. 

"But until then we intend to meet every aggressive move made by the government to derail what in fact we've set about doing down there. Other people's misfortune we've had to settle with and we've had to deal with. But this is just not a misfortune for us, it's a misfortune for the Bahamian people. We've just been put in the spotlight about all of this sort of thing. We've got to deal with it because it is a legal matter." 

Two weeks ago, the government announced its decision to file an involuntary winding up petition against the 14 Bahamian incorporated companies that make up Baha Mar in the Supreme Court. The decision came after the resort's developer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US last month. 

Prime Minister Perry Christie said then: "The role of the liquidators will be to expedite the resolution of the matter and to prepare a plan for the restructuring of Baha Mar, that will result in the earliest possible completion and opening of the project. The Bahamian court is familiar with using the provisional liquidation procedure as an effective tool to reorganise a company's affairs."

In a recent interview with The Tribune, Mr Bowe said while Baha Mar's court battle might be "protracted", the Christie administration's "reactionary" response to resort CEO Sarkis Izmirlian's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing should be seen as a bid to protect this country's interests. 

"Liquidation in the Bahamas is essentially a stop and sale action, saying this entity can no longer pay all of its bills," Mr Bowe said. "But the intent by the government is not to stop and sell, but to take it out of the hands of the party with the emotion and the contention, and put it into the hands of an independent entity."

Mr Izmirlian responded this week on a radio talk show to Mr Bowe's comments, saying: "And when you have the government's handpicked liquidator that goes out in the press and makes statements like, and I quote, "The intent by the government is to take it out of the hands of the party with the emotion'; that does not sound like a legal argument for defending the people of the Bahamas. That sounds like revenge to me."